U.N. to Start Training Syria Arab Observers

The United Nations said Monday that it would start training Arab League observers monitoring the deadly crackdown in Syria within days.

A formal request for help has been made by the Arab League and the U.N. has agreed to start the training in Cairo after League foreign ministers meet this weekend, a U.N. spokeswoman, Vannina Maestracci, told Agence France Presse.

The training is to be carried out by staff of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Maestracci said.

"At the request of the League of Arab States, the OHCHR has agreed to train observers and will deploy to Cairo to do this training," she said.

A report by the observer mission is to be handed over to Arab League ministers on Thursday and the ministers will meet on Saturday in Cairo to decide the future of the mission.

Maestracci said the training had been scheduled to start earlier but was delayed at the request of the Arab League until after the ministerial meeting.

The U.N. said in early January that it was ready to help the observer mission, which has faced widespread criticism from the Syrian opposition, but that it was waiting for a request from the Arab League.

The spokeswoman was unable to say how many observers would be trained or how many U.N. experts would be involved.

The U.N. says that at least 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on opposition protests started in March last year.